Chelsea Manning Officially Appeals Her 35-Year Prison Sentence

Chelsea Manning, the former U.S. Army Private who leaked thousands of classified documents to the website WikiLeaks in 2013, has officially filed an appeal for her 35-year military prison sentence after being convicted of multiple charges including violation of the Espionage Act. The former intelligence analyst’s leak of hundreds of thousands of classified documents, mostly about the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, has sparked a wide debate about government secrecy and First Amendment rights. The appeal argues that the sentencing was overreaching, stating, “For what PFC Manning did, the punishment is grossly unfair and unprecedented.